3rd September 1939
The mass evacuation of children from cities to the reception areas considered safe from air attack proceeded for three days. By the night of 3rd September 1939 nearly 1,500,000 evacuees had been moved - 827,000 being schoolchildren travelling with their teachers.
Another 535,000 were women expecting babies or who had children under school age. Each child was labelled with name, address and school number and carried a gas mask, night clothing, toothbrush, comb, soap and towel, spare underwear, handkerchief and overcoat if available. The children were marshalled at railway stations and issued with blank tickets, no destinations were given. Parents were informed where they were as soon as possible. Distribution centres were organized in towns like Oxford, Cambridge, Reading, Brighton, Gloucester, Scarborough and Ilkley, and in North Wales and the Scottish Highlands. In Bedford the cattle market was used as a reception centre for onward dispersal to the country; Dagenham children went by pleasure steamer to Yarmouth. Those who took evacuees were paid 10/6 (52'/2p/$2.34) a week for one child and 8/6 for each extra child


By the end of the war, about 3.5 million people had been evacuated, mainly children. No one was forced to go, but parents were told that their children would be safer from German bombs if they moved to the country.